February 28, 2012 - Windsor - Ambassador Bridge
Dennis Patrick Reports:
Feb 17th, Freddie and Voltaire both of the east side of the Abudment, then Voltaire flew on to the nest ledge and Freddie flew on to his spot, the pipe.
Feb 26th, around 12:20 P.M. Dennis and I were int he parking lot watching the nest ledge site while Freddie was sitting on his spot on the pipe. About twenty minutes late Voltaire flew in on the nest ledge. Freddie then flew down where she was and it looked like he handed her a food package and they actually ate lunch together. Then both did lots of flying around the bridge until Freddie landed on the pipe with Voltaire landing near him and we actually saw them copulate. It’s one thing to hear someone say they saw it but to see it first hand it was amazing. He then left and landed on the nest box while she stayed on the pipe preening. Before we left at 2 P.M. they both had flown to the West. Stay tuned for more postings. Love is in the air.
Gwen & Dennis Site Co-ordinators CPF
Posted on February 28, 2012 10:23 am
February 27, 2012 - CPF Events
Frank Butson Reports:
From Feb 23-26th CPF staff, volunteers and most importantly our feathered educators enjoyed their first Ottawa Sportsmans Show. The folks of Ottawa were very generous and loved our birds of prey exhibit. Many show-goers enjoyed their first up-close and personal visit with Alexandra the Great..Horned Owl, Seamus the Barn Owl(a real hit with everyone), Kyla our wee sweet American Kestrel, 2 of our beautiful Peregrine Falcons, Oscar and Nova and making his show debut was our Redtailed Hawk, Tomahawk(Tom-A-Hawk) or Tommy for short. The birds loved the attention they got and all of the new friends they made in Ottawa. Thousands of attendees admired and learned about each birds unique traits, conservation efforts and many relayed stories to us. It was a great show and we hope to be back again same time next year!
Posted on February 27, 2012 6:14 pm
February 26, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:
Yesterday while I was having lunch at work I looked up at the monitor & Buffalo Bill our resident male showed off his jewelery close to the camera. After the fight last Friday I wasn’t 100% sure who was the victor but the falcon got up real close to the camera and sure enough it was 68 over r black over green the resident male Buffalo Bill. He looks no worse for the wear as both legs are working just fine. The pair are exhibiting courtship behaviour.
Posted on February 26, 2012 8:20 pm
February 24, 2012 - CPF Events
Tracy Simpson Reports:
Do you remember the Grinch who stole Christmas and Cindy Loo who was no more than two the little girl from Hooville? Well she came to visit Alexandra, another kind of hoo at the Ottawa sportsman show too! Posing is Sierra Gates the newest sweetest small hoo.
Posted on February 25, 2012 8:59 am
February 19, 2012 - Scarborough - Yellow Pages
Tracy Simpson Reports:
We were fortunate to have the girls from Rochester visit this past weekend and spend some time with our educational birds at the Raptor Centre on Saturday. On the Sunday, they made the rounds to visit with “their girls” here in Toronto, one of which is Linn. When they arrived, they found both adults roosting in the afternoon sun on the Yellow Pages building. It’s great to see the two back in action and we look forward to the 2012 season!! When you look at the picture, look for the two whitish dots on the upper ledges!!
Posted on February 24, 2012 4:09 pm
February 21, 2012 - Toronto - Don Mills
CPF Postmaster Reports:
February 21, 2012
This morning at 7:25 a.m., both peregrines were on the Harlequin building. Without glasses, I could not identify them as Quest and Kendal.
Caroline
Posted on February 23, 2012 2:58 pm
February 17, 2012 - Port Colborne - ADM Mill
Doug Garbutt Reports:
Today as I was leaving work at 3:30 pm I glanced at our monitor in the lunch room & noticed there were 3 adult falcons bent down facing each other squawking (1 female, 2 males). This went on for a few minutes until Trillium (our resident female) sort of backed away & the 2 males got aggressive towards each other. I’m not sure which one, but I think the resident male Buffalo Bill 68 over R chased the intruding male from the box. We thought the confrontation was over however the intruder returned. The tiercels then went at each other locking talons & pecking viciously at each other with their beaks. During the conflict, one of the birds got a talon hooked into the band of the other & they could not free themselves. The circumstance accelerated the animosity towards each other and they got even more aggressive. This went on for what seemed to be a very long time (I’m guessing 5 minutes). All the time pecking at each other. At one point, they made their way perilously close to the edge of the nest box with a sheer drop of at least 150 feet! Thankfully they did not go over the edge. The birds were becoming exhausted & at one point we thought that one was dead or severely injured as it was flat on it’s back with the other pecking at it. The bird somehow got back up and as if a miracle the talon became free and he fled the box. This was a little too much action for me because I thought that perhaps there could be serious injury to Buffalo Bill. I’m pretty sure that he was the victor but I haven’t positively ID’d him since. I think he’s OK though because the following day there were 2 falcons in the nest box for most of the day (but I couldn’t see the band colour). I’m pretty sure it’s Buffalo Bill.
Posted on February 22, 2012 9:53 pm
February 22, 2012 - Etobicoke - Sun Life Centre
Kathy Reports:
Was lucky enough to see Jack doing some dazzling flying displays to impress Angel today on my lunch break!
Awhile ago he was it again and there was lots of chatting back and forth between them and both entered the nestbox together. Angel came back out right away and I could see her bowing but couldn’t see Jack from the ground. I watched for about another 5 minutes and he was still in the box while Angel was chatting to him - working on his scrape no doubt!
Diamond Lil in San Francisco laid the first peregrine falcon egg of the season on Saturday night - and the second egg came last night! Looks like the 2012 nesting season is officially on!!
Posted on February 22, 2012 4:07 pm
February 22, 2012 - Toronto - Sheraton Centre
Tracy Simpson Reports:
While on our website, I hopped over to the Toronto Sheraton Hotel webcam and was greeted with the sight of Tiago at the nest tray checking it out and doing a little housekeeping. It was wonderful to see him on site as at this time of year as catching the adults in the camera view is not as easy as when they are attending to eggs or young. I think Tiago has spring on his mind!
Posted on February 22, 2012 11:52 am
February 19, 2012 - Brampton - Courthouse
CPF Postmaster Reports:
Sunday February 19th / 2012
No sign of any Peregrines in the morning , then around noon I found Milton on the south end of the courthouse right near last years nest ledge in the sun, very alert. Took a few pics then as I was leaving a Merlin (Pigeon hawk in my old Audubon book) came in and sat on one of the cell towers maybe 80 ft above him.
Milton sat looking up at it for about a minute. I confirmed what I saw with my bins then took one pic and headed over to get closer and a different angle to catch a pic maybe of both of them with the light behind me. Milton took off and had a slow flight into the courtyard putting up the pigeons… then headed up over the roof not really in a hurry the smaller falcon then bolted southeast.
I got only the one pic of it on the tower but you can see that it is much smaller when compared with the pic of Courtney on the tower. And no it is not a pigeon, I saw it fly in and leave and I got a good look with my bins before I picked up my camera.
There have been a lot of starlings on the building of late.
Then at 4 pm I cruised by again and Milton was on the SW corner where Truss would sit and look down at the scrape. He was very alert despite the very full crop. Again he took a short unhurried flight (45 sec.) and all the pigeons and starlings on the building were up and away, he returned to the corner to sit , in the breeze I might add.
The two short flights were almost lazy and seemed just meant to chase the other birds off the building. Territorial???
All in all it was very interesting.
Toivo
PS: - I added one pic of Courtney on the same tower so you can see the size difference
Posted on February 20, 2012 2:32 pm
